ABSTRACT
The mass media and legal system possess and promulgate deep misunderstandings of the basic concepts, operation, and effects of the modern Conducted Electrical Weapon (CEW). CEWs are, after all, weapons, and are used in violent and dangerous situations. They have indeed contributed to deaths from head injuries and ignition of flammable fumes. While electrocution remains a theoretical possibility, the notion that an electrical weapon has ever electrocuted anyone is an urban myth. CEW benefits are well established in the peer-reviewed literature and explain why these weapons are so widely adopted throughout the industrialized world. With the use of CEWs, injury rates are reduced by approximately two-thirds. The most misunderstood and exaggerated theoretical risk is that of electrocution or the electrical induction of ventricular fibrillation (VF). This is extremely unlikely as the output of existing CEWs satisfies all relevant world electrical safety standards, including those for the ubiquitous electric fence.
